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Chestnut Pudding, Nesselrode Fashion

A chilled chestnut pudding with sugar, vanilla, egg yolks, milk, currants, raisins, marasquino, candied citron, whipped cream, and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Chestnut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 244 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chestnut Pudding, Nesselrode Fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Blanch chestnuts in boiling water, then dry and cool them.

  2. In a mortar, combine chestnuts, sugar, and vanilla; pound well and sift through a fine sieve.

  3. In a stewpan, mix the chestnut mixture with egg yolks.

  4. In another stewpan, bring milk to a boil and pour it over the chestnut mixture, stirring well.

  5. Cook over medium heat until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

  6. Pour the mixture through a tammy into a large dish and let it cool.

Freeze and mould

  1. Freeze the mixture in a freezing pot as directed in recipe No. 833.

  2. Soak currants and raisins in marasquino overnight.

  3. Add soaked fruits, diced citron, whipped cream, and half the meringue to the freezing pot and mix well.

  4. Fill a large high ice mould with the mixture and bury it in ice and salt until ready to serve.

  5. Dip the mould in lukewarm water and turn it out onto a dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chestnut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together244 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Chestnut + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard base and enrich its texture as it cooks.
Chestnuts
Provide the main body and flavour of the pudding base.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a smooth, creamy texture to the frozen mixture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that cooks with the yolks into a custard.
Meringue
Lightens the frozen mixture and adds airy texture.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle if overheated. Cooking gently until the custard coats a spoon thickens it smoothly, and the mixture must be fully cooled before freezing.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chestnut, sugar, vanilla, egg, milk, raisin, cream):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chestnut, sugar, vanilla, egg, milk, raisin, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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